author of immortal life of henrietta lacks

#Author of immortal life of henrietta lacks full

If her cells were really so important for the advancement of medicine, then why can her children not even afford basic health insurance? A particularly poignant part of the book is when Skloot visits Henrietta’s sons for the first time, and they suddenly started yelling about Hopkins “snatchin people” and “experimentin on them”. Deborah Lacks, daughter of Henrietta Lacksīesides, Henrietta never received the fame she deserved and her family continued to live in abject conditions. But I don’t got it in me no more to fight. I used to get so mad about that to where it made me sick and I had to take pills. People got rich off my mother without us even knowin about them takin her cells, now we don’t get a dime. When requesting to perform an autopsy on Henrietta’s body, he gave her husband the impression that doing so would help his children through investigating the cancer that had killed their mother, when, in fact, they were doing it for their own benefit.īut I have always thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors? Don’t make no sense. Personally, I find it quite confounding that Henrietta’s doctor George Gey had never bothered to disclose this information to her or her family, even after the cells had evidently spurred a scientific revolution. She and her family never knew that Johns Hopkins had cultured her cells and gave them away to other scientists, who lunged at the opportunity to commercialise them. Obtaining informed consent from patients for research was not standard practice in the 1950s, when Henrietta was treated for cervical cancer. Reading this book gave me an unexpected background into her life and her family.

#Author of immortal life of henrietta lacks full

Previously, I had heard of her name and her cells, but had never been acquainted with the full details. Ethical Questionsĭiving into the story of Henrietta Lacks left me ruminating over ethical questions. It is her immutable determination to tell the story of an unsung hero that has made this book such a compelling read. I admire Skloot for her calm temperament and for never taking things personally, even when she was accused of “working for Johns Hopkins”.

Yet, over time, Skloot managed to gain their trust by being honest and respectful, forming a friendship with Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah. Having suffered so much from the stress of trying to understand the gravity of the situation and the anxiety of warding off unwarranted lawyers, reporters and scientists, the children of Henrietta Lacks were initially unwilling to speak to Skloot. The way Skloot approached the Lacks family has taught me a lot about empathy and compassion. The way Rebecca Skloot narrates the story convinces the reader of her sincerity in working on this years-long project, unlike many other reporters who simply want attention-grabbing headlines. Raw and powerful, the historical significance interlaced with a deep sense of humanity is palpable throughout the book. In this monumental book, Rebecca Skloot embarks on an ambitious undertaking to uncover the full history behind the woman and her family, giving them the recognition they so rightly deserve.

Yet, they remained mired in poverty while others profited off the valuable HeLa cells. Her family, who were poor, black and mostly uneducated, had no inkling of the significant contributions of her cells to science until much later. And even then, her identity, her life and her past remained shrouded in mystery to most of the general public. Yet, no one knew the true identity of the patient from whom the cells had been collected until decades later. Soon, this remarkable cell line grew into a multibillion-dollar industry. From the laboratory of the Johns Hopkins hospital, George Gey distributed these cells-which he called “HeLa” after the first two letters of the patient’s first and last names-to scientists and researchers around the world. This breakthrough unlocked an entire universe of possibilities for scientific research, including drug development and testing, as well as investigating the effects of any conceivable substance on human cells. At a time when cell culture was still a nascent technique, the discovery of immortal cells from a female patient’s cervical tumour shocked and thrilled the scientific community. Immortality seems to be something out of a science-fiction novel.